iPhone 17 Said to Feature More Seamless Camera Bump Design

[DELLsFan]

"Along with an aluminum frame, the iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to include a half-aluminum, half-glass backing, rather than an all-glass back."

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WHAT IF.... it is folding and one half has glass back and other is aluminum.... bet nobody has thought of this yet....look how fancy I edited this.

What else can Apple do to the iPhone to compel me to upgrade every other year now? Something radically innovative - like folding it might do the trick if they did it right. Do we really need more camera improvements? Really? Better processors, better WiFi, more storage, & more RAM is EXPECTED. It's been too long since we received anything UNEXPECTED.

 

[one more]

I don’t know how they can make it smoother than my iPhone 15, unless they go back to rounded corners like the past X-11 range?

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

The renders are obviously speculative, but I wondered the same thing. I also wondered if you will be forced to use portrait orientation to take spatial videos. Maybe Apple is finally coming to terms with the idea that pretending a phone can emulate the ergonomics of an actual camera is a fool’s errand. 🤷‍♂️

Spatial video would be improved if the 2 lenses shooting it were about average eye width spaced apart. Lay your glasses or sunglasses on the existing triangle and you’ll see there is no combo spread wide enough. Now lay the same across the back as implied by this mockup and you’ll see that such a change could easily do it.

Bonus: the “wobbly” on table gripe gets addressed too.

Bonus 2: those that most covet a tangible cosmetic change to prove they have the latest iPhone to strangers could scratch their most important itch too.

 

[redbeard331]

And how would wireless charging be achieved with a 100% metal rear?

I covered that in my post.

 

[ThailandToo]

I still don’t see how they can market aluminum over titanium, have my doubts about this.

I’ve never thought of glass as a “premium” material anyways, I’d like to see them go to a 100% metal rear. Can keep the magnets for all the various mounts n stuff, and use a MacBook style connector that could attach to the side somewhere for charging. Gives you better heat management and more space for a vapor chamber.

I think this way. I mean aluminum is nicer than plastic but not as good as steel and horrible compared to titanium.

 

[ThomasJL]

In other words, the iPhone 17 will still have practically same design as the the iPhone 11, but with different materials. The iPhone 17 should be called iPhone 11ssssss.

 

[MrRom92]

Edge to rear you say?

 

[ab2c4]

I don’t know how they can make it smoother than my iPhone 15, unless they go back to rounded corners like the past X-11 range?

This was my big question as well from the article. Are they somewhat rounding the edges/sides finally?

Edit: The more I was thinking about this I pulled up pics of the Iphone 5c, I wonder if it will be just like that based on the description in the article as far as rounding out the edges.

 

[Ctrlos]

If Apple can figure out how to make a glass back look metallic and merge directly into the rest of the body, that would be something. In theory all it would take is an insulation layer around the edges of the exposed MagSafe ring and the rest of the chassis. They wouldn’t need much glass at all which would make the back plate a lot sturdier.

They could then, Nothing-style make the MagSafe ring a design feature rather than hiding it away with the Apple logo in the middle.

They could also make the iPhone a unibody product.

 

[Premium1]

The Ipixel. I guess Apple ran out of ideas so they are going the samsung route and copying...

 

[Premium1]

Which is reminiscent of nigh on every smart phone since 2007.

Way to cope but how many devices before the pixel had the camera bar across like that?

 

[coffeemilktea]

the Chinese leaker claimed that suppliers say the iPhone 17 is adopting a "process overhaul," suggesting that Apple has developed new manufacturing techniques to create smoother transitions between different materials

Can they overhaul whatever process led their designers to create something that looks like a Google Pixel that's strayed far from the light of the LORD? 😱

...seriously, whoever cooked up these renders must have felt like trolling that day. 😩

 

[ab2c4]

I hope this brings down the weight of the Pro models by A LOT. The 15 Pro was 6.6 ounces which was still too heavy for a 6.1" phone, now the 16 Pro is chunked up to 7.0 ounces for a 6.3" which is even worse. My hope for the 17 Pro is that for the 6.3" model it weighs somewhere between 6.2 ounces to maybe at the maximum 6.5 ounces. And they finally get rid of those horrid sharp edges that we have now and replace them with comfortable rounded edges. That would be a great phone if they do those two things.

 

[Lepton]

How can you take spatial video with the cameras in a vertical configuration?

 

[DrJR]

What else can Apple do to the iPhone to compel me to upgrade every other year now? Something radically innovative - like folding it might do the trick if they did it right. Do we really need more camera improvements? Really? Better processors, better WiFi, more storage, & more RAM is EXPECTED. It's been too long since we received anything UNEXPECTED.

Agreed. But with that said it has also been a while since they've released anything unexpectedly BAD. When Apple drops the ball it is ugly. I remember a DOA iMac I got back in like 2007, brand new, bad firmware.... took a month to get updated and running. It was back in the day when you didn't just return things to Apple. In 2004 I got a DOA refurbed PB G4. Getting them to take it back was like pulling teeth back then.

 

[orev]

Aluminum is objectively a better material for a phone, and the move to titanium was only to make something new that they could market as more premium (and maybe as an internal metallurgical challenge for them). Aluminum is easier to work with, just as light weight, and dissipates heat much better than titanium.

 

[x-evil-x]

I don’t mind the horizontal camera but why don’t they slope the back and make the camera bump go away.

Like how the MacBook Air was. It would lean towards you also laying down and give more room for battery being thicker going upward.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

How can you take spatial video with the cameras in a vertical configuration?

Rotate the phone to portrait orientation... like many (maybe most) shoot video now (resulting in tall & skinny video when shown on TV screens)?

That habit is established. There seems to be no amount of verbal recommendations to break it. So maybe the phone should evolve to make it work.

Bonus: the 2 lenses for spatial could actually be about average eye width apart, improving spatial capture.

Bonus 2: the much griped about wobble on table would be addressed.

And for those who want to shoot tall & skinny on purpose could then be told to rotate the phone if the software just can't facilitate shooting either way while holding it in portrait.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

I don’t mind the horizontal camera but why don’t they slope the back and make the camera bump go away.

Like how the MacBook Air was. It would lean towards you also laying down and give more room for battery being thicker going upward.

I actually think an original MBair Wedge shape concept would work well in a new iPhone. They get their super skinny end for "thinner" spin (just as they did with that air and that iMac that used the same general trick on the edges) and they can flush the camera on the thicker end. The wedge would easily work into pockets (probably better than the brick shape now). They already worked out how to stack batteries in thicker spaces many years ago.

 

[x-evil-x]

I actually think an original MBair Wedge shape would work well. They get their super skinny end for "thinner" spin (just as they did with that air and that iMac that used the same general trick on the edges) and they can flush the camera on the thicker end. The wedge would easily work into pockets (probably better than the brick shape now). They already worked out how to stack batteries in thicker spaces many years ago.

I think it would make this camera orientation really flow better than keeping the huge bump out. Will still feel slim in your hand and you don’t have to lean over the table as much to unlock it. No more rocking balance on the back either. Being caseless the rocking drives me crazy.

 

[SactoGuy18]

Personally, I think Apple has prototyped both the triangular and the Pixel 9 style rear image sensor placement on the iPhone 17 Pro models. They will likely make a decision on which design to go with probably end of this month.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

Aluminum is objectively a better material for a phone, and the move to titanium was only to make something new that they could market as more premium (and maybe as an internal metallurgical challenge for them). Aluminum is easier to work with, just as light weight, and dissipates heat much better than titanium.

It also should be noted that the actual amount of titanium used in both the 15P-16P is extremely small, it’s a millimeter thin external strip of titanium bonded to a bunch of aluminum.

 

[stevefeinstein]

That design makes no sense. If used in landscape the camera lenses will not be far apart enough to provide any spatial capture. I wish people would stop wasting time on this nonsense and how about designing something new and clever and not trying to farm karma off of Apple.

 

[Nevaborn]

Or how about a radical idea for Apple… make it thicker! No bump and increased battery.

 

[Andy_2341]

By shooting pics or video like most do now: holding phone in portrait orientation. Finally in software, you choose screen-filling landscape vs. tall & skinny portrait video… like how we choose to shoot a picture vs. a video now. Make a choice and shoot your video as chosen.

And I actually think this would be a good change as the habit seems locked in. Even when one explains that if someone wants their video to eventually fill their TV screen, the next time(s) they shoot they’ll prob hold it in portrait again. They’ll also be likely to complain about the big black blocks on each side of their video when played on a TV, listen to why it looks like that but then shoot new video in portrait again. The habit seems locked. Fixing it in software seems best general-purpose remedy.

This baffles me. It seems obvious to shoot for landscape in landscape mode, but I don’t use social media where you are generally in portrait, so that might be the difference.